Elbow River flood plan to be released Friday

The city's flood mitigation report includes a feasibility study on a diversion tunnel

A rendering released by the province shows in yellow the proposed underground tunnel that would allow future flooding in the Glenmore Reservoir to be diverted eastward to the Bow River. (Government of Alberta)

The path towards mitigating future flooding on the Elbow River may become a bit clearer later this week.

The city's flood mitigation report will be released on Friday — including a feasibility study on a diversion tunnel on the 58th Avenue corridor to take water from the Glenmore Reservoir to the Bow River.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi expects there's a lot of public interest in that report.

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi says there is a low risk for a major flood this summer. (CBC)

“I do know what questions they attempted to answer and the basic findings, but once I see the report, I'll have a better chance to talk about the numbers and so on," he said.

Nenshi says the report will help the province decide which projects should proceed.

“You can do pretty straightforward math on McLean Creek, Springbank, tunnel, what combination of those makes sense, what combination of those costs how much money. So we'll be looking through these various scenarios as part of this work.”

The province is looking at a dry dam at McLean Creek and an off-stream storage site near Springbank Road. Those projects are estimated to cost $200 million each.